Lowcountry Shrimp & Grits | Get Cookin’ | Allrecipes

Nicole shows you how to make the best shrimp and grits that you’ve ever (or never) had with her mother-in-law’s award-winning brunch recipe! Plus, she also shows you how to make her rich tomato gravy to bring even more flavor to the table.

Combine water, milk, butter, and salt in a large saucepan and bring just to a boil. Whisk in grits until incorporated. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook until thick, 25 to 30 minutes, stirring often. If mixture gets too thick, add a little more milk or water.

Cut kernels off corn cobs, and using the back of the knife, carefully scrape the cob to release the creamy corn milk. Stir corn kernels and corn milk into grits and continue cooking until grits are creamy and tender, 15 to 20 minutes longer, stirring often. Stir in pepper and adjust seasonings if necessary.

Meanwhile, heat a large deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add olive oil and bacon slices in a single layer, and cook until bacon is crisp, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes. Remove bacon from the skillet, drain on paper towels, and set aside. Crumble bacon once cool enough to handle. Reserve drippings in the skillet and return skillet to medium-high heat.

Finely slice green onions and reserve green ends for garnish. Add white parts of green onion, onion, green and red bell peppers, and okra to the skillet and cook until softened and lightly browned, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add in salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne and cook for 1 minute. Add fresh tomatoes and garlic, and cook for 2 minutes.

Add butter to mixture and allow it to melt. Sprinkle flour over skillet and cook, stirring constantly, about 1 minute. Add in tomatoes, with juices, and stock while stirring constantly until smooth. Stir in sugar, Worcestershire, and hot sauce, and return mixture to a simmer. Cook gravy for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Heat peanut oil to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Whisk eggs in a bowl; add shrimp and stir to coat. In a shallow dish, whisk flour, salt, paprika, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Working a few at a time, remove shrimp from egg, allowing excess to drip off, and lightly coat in flour mixture. Transfer shrimp to a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with remaining shrimp.

Working in batches, add shrimp to hot oil and cook, turning occasionally, until lightly browned and crisp, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain on a wire rack set over a paper towel-lined baking sheet.

To serve, place grits in the bottom of a shallow bowl. Top with about 1/2 cup of gravy and 6 to 8 shrimp. Top with crumbled bacon, and sprinkle with green onions and parsley if desired.
_________
Allrecipes Magazine is now available!
U.S. subscribers, subscribe here: http://armagazine.com/subscribenow
Canadian subscribers, subscribe here: http://themeredithstore.ca/p-282-allrecipes-subscription.aspx
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Allrecipes
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allrecipes/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/allrecipes/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@allrecipes

when was the last time you had a hot bowl of shrimp and grits come in take a seat I’m going to show you the very best shrimping grits you’ve ever or never have it is influenced by my mother-in-law who won the shrimp and grits contest way back in 205 starting with the shrimp I did for this get a smaller golf shrimp because we want to be able to get you know all shrimp in each bite now these come in at the very end of the dish but to get started you definitely want to peel them and devain them now this is not a glamorous process I don’t always like to devain by cutting it open cuz I don’t really like them all butter flat out sometimes so when you’re able to just pull out the little track I say do that then the shrimp will hold its shape during cooking I’m going to keep these refrigerated until then second component the Grits also never had real grits until I moved to Charleston stone ground grits or what you want these are superior to any other kind of quick grit the only difference is that they take way longer to cook so you want to get this started before you start your gravy or anything else the one thing you want to remember is that it’s at least four parts liquid to one part grits so I’m going to do like a heaping cup of grits to about five cups of liquid so I’ve got four cups of water but I like my grits really creamy so to the water I’m adding in milk about a cup and you just bring that to a boil with some salt and butter and get the secret ingredient to these grits as you know grits are just dried corn but what she did in her award-winning grits is that she stirred in fresh white corn into them sweet corn so I kind of run it over the cob halfway and then go again so you get like kind of half kernels we’re not looking for like huge chunks of corn in our grits so once you have your kernels off take the back of your knife and you run it up and down the cob and you get this Milky goodness right here see see all that and I’m just going to add it to my kernels they call it corn milk and then you stir that into the Grits as they’re finishing oh my God I thought that was pure genius I can see the bubbles start to form around the outside I’m going to go ahead and whisk in the Grits resist the urge to add more grits here it looks like way too much liquid for grits trust the process so it’s come up to a boil I’m going to reduce the heat to just a low simmer cover it and check it every now and then and then in the meantime we can make our gravy the gravy is where the variations come in this is where new two recipes are alike now my mother-in-law and I both like a tomato gravy now it’s not like tomato like tomato sauce but it has tomato in it but this is kind of like a combination of like shrimp and grits Meats gum bow so this one starts with onion and bell pepper I’m using sweet onion so you want to get something like velia onion so at the end I’ll use the tops of the green onion so I’m going to use the white parts to go ahead and add in this part so that we use the whole onion okay I’ll save these for later and then bell pepper I like a combination of green and red bell pepper this is also something you can make ahead of time you can have this gravy part made well in advance and then just add your shrimp at the very end before serving well let me Che my roots they’re trying to Clump up but not going to let that happen onion bell pepper garlic that’s the main thing you want to include for the Tomato she does heirloom tomato sometimes that can be too bougie you know I do love the addition of some fresh tomato it just kind of burst with that summer freshness that we’re going for in this dish although to these Tomatoes I’m going to add in Rotel I don’t know how she’s going to feel about that she uses a RA in here because we’ve really embraced the low country summer Southern produce this is not typical in shrimping grits however I love sokra I think I’m going to add it if this just is getting too overwhelming just fast forward to where we make the gravy and skip over this part but don’t leave me and then you just want to chop up your bacon you can cook it whole and then crumble it later I like to go ahead and chop it now so that it already is crumbled as they say let’s get cooking I’m going to give my grits another look they’re about 2/3 of the way done now and this is when I want to add in that corn and corn milk see how it kind of Blends in with those grits you hadn’t seen this trip before grits need to cook more but that flavor it’s amazing I’m going to push these to the back and let them continue to simmer we’ll get our gravy going here I’m going to add the bacon into the cold pan as it heats up if you start your bacon slow like that it renders the fat out as the pan heats up versus if you just add it to a hot Skillet it doesn’t you know let out as much fat I’m going to add in like a teaspoon or two of oil just to help get that bacon going Bacon’s crispy our first layer of flavor has developed in the pan so I’m going to take out the bacon and just drain it on a paper towel but you want to leave behind as much fat in the pan as you can got you know a good two to 3 tablespoons love it in with the onions and the bell pepper I don’t want to add the tomatoes yet I don’t want to steam anything I want to develop some color here I’m also going to go in with the okra to let that um caramelize a little bit saving out the tomatoes and garlic then you can crank the heat up a little bit keep this on high to sauté okay going to add a little seasonings some salt a good bit of pepper a little bit of garlic powder and some cayenne now I’m going in with my fresh tomatoes and garlic and this is where I kind of make this my own here I’m going to add in some butter here and then add in a little flour to make that Rue so that this can really develop into a gravy my mother-in-law doesn’t do this step she just keeps it really thin and ful which is also great and she richens it up at the end I just find this to be a little more user friendly and it kind of stretches out the gravy a lot further cook that for just about 30 seconds to a minute and then I’m going to go in with my liquid I’ve just always put this in mind because I like the little kick it gives you got Tomatoes you got green chilies to that I’m adding in some chicken stock see how good that looks and just a couple final components to the gravy just a little bit of sugar about a/4 to half a teaspoon this is going to pull some of that acid out of the tomato and a couple dashes of Wester sheer to add a little more like salty depth to it and if you want it spicier this is the time to add in the hot sauce I think we’re good for now and we’re just going to let this simmer until those veggies are nice and soft now this is where my mother-in-law really took it over the top at this point you can just add your shrimp into the gravy at the end cook it till it’s just done and then you’re good to go if you are looking to really impress and you know make this the ultimate version we’re going to do what she does which is lightly fry the shrimp and serve it on top she was looking to make it different than all the restaurant versions she had had so I think this is what got her the Blue Ribbon this and stiring the corn into the Grits so I’m going to get some oil going and then we’ll just very simply prepare our shrimp let’s do this they soak in egg I like to give them just a good bath in the egg wash and then you want to season your flour so just salt pepper some paprika helps them get brown and then a little bit of cayenne super simple and then you just take your shrimp from the egg let all the excess drip off and then place them in your flour you want a really light coating of flour these are just like super lightly fried oil hot and goes our shrimp this only takes like seconds not long oh this is going to be good after just about a minute they are done drain them on some paper towels this dish calls for this if we’re going to do it we’re going to do it right yes this is the time if you choose to add cheese to your grits you can sometimes I do sometimes I don’t today I’m not going to mask that fresh corn taste because it is got it going on in there right now you can see how thick and creamy these grits are I mean you’ll think they already have cheese in them but I’m telling you they don’t then goes the gravy okay see where I’m going look at that and then the Finishing Touch some of that bacon and green onion just want a little parsley do you just see the magic that is awardwinning shrimping grants she’s so pretty but how does she taste the Low Country knows what they’re doing it’s just like a match made in heaven perfect Pine fresh fresh fresh the corn takes those grits like to their like purest form then the juiciness from all those veggies I mean you got the burst of tomato that little bit of okra then you also have that fresh kind of scallion and parsley on top Smoky bacon and then the shrimp delicate little fruits of the sea thank you to my mother-in-law for giving us her Secrets if you’ve never had shrimping grits please start with this recipe and if you have had shrimping grits please make this recipe and if you disagree with me you can kiss my grits see when he laughs when he laughs that means it’s we nailed it [Music] I